Athanasios Nenes wins the David Sinclair Award
Athanasios Nenes is full professor and head of the Laboratory of Atmospheric Processes and their Impacts at EPFL. © Alain Herzog / EPFL
Athanasios Nenes has been honored with the David Sinclair Award for sustained excellence in aerosol research and technology. He also has been included in the prestigious list of most Highly Cited Researchers in 2024, for the fifth year in a row.
The David Sinclair Award is given by the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR). It recognizes sustained excellence in aerosol research and technology by an established scientist still active in his or her career. The individual's research must have a lasting impact in aerosol science. AAAR is one of the oldest and most established organization for scientists and engineers who wish to promote and communicate technical advances in all areas of aerosol science including: Global Environment, Microcontamination, Air Pollution, Instrumentation/Measurement, Aerosol Chemistry, Material Synthesis, Aerosol Physics, Pharmaceutical Aerosols, Occupational and Public Health, Filtration/Separation, Atmospheric Sciences, Combustion, Biological Aerosols, Metrology/Standards, Indoor Air Quality, and Radioactive Aerosols/Nuclear Safety.
This year, the David Sinclair Award has been awarded to AthanasiosNenes, full professor and head of the Laboratory of Atmospheric Processes and their Impacts (LAPI) at EPFL since 2018 and co-founder member of the Center for Air Quality Studies and Climate Change (C-STACC) at the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences of the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas in Greece.
“AAAR has been a home community since my first steps in science and research; it helped me develop as a scientist, sought inspiration, initiated many fruitful collaborations and forged cherished friendships and a research network that have been there for me and my group for decades. AAAR also provided significant leadership opportunities, the culmination of which was the chairing of its 2014 Annual conference”, says Nenes, who concludes with “It is a huge honor for me to be a recipient of the award. It would not have been possible without the contributions of many outstanding researchers, graduate students and collaborators. I thank the AAAR Awards committee, my nominator and letter writers for their efforts. Most importantly I dedicate this award to my two children and wife, who have been there for me all these years and give meaning to anything that I do.”
Current activities
Amongst his current activities, Nenes currently co-coordinates the Horizon Europe CleanCloud project which focuses on aerosol impacts on clouds and climate in a post-fossil world, is lead PI on the ETH Domain Joint Initiative ReCLEAN which focuses on the reactive nitrogen cycle responses to climate change and the energy transition across all compartments in Switzerland, and has established the LAPI-BREATH, a unique facility worldwide for studying the evolution of aerosol-borne viruses and their role in airborne transmission of infectious diseases like influenza.
"Catastrophically warm predictions are more plausible than we thought", EPFL News, 11 October 2024.
Clarivate's Highly Cited Researchers
Athanasios Nenes has also been included among Clarivate's Highly Cited Researchers. The Highly Cited Researchers ranking is published each year by Clarivate to recognize scientists who have “authored multiple Highly Cited Papers which rank in the top 1% by citations for their field(s) and publication year in the Web of Science over the past decade. Highly Cited Researchers account for just 1 in 1000 of the world’s scientists and social scientists. Athanasios Nenes appears in this ranking for the fifth year running.